kuchars22

Hi All,

I've had BMW's for a long time now, and the advantage I've had with using INPA, DIS, SSS, ISTA+ etc has been most beneficial and saved me hundreds. if not thousands, in repairs with these cars I've owned. However, it has come to the point where I may now go over to a rival marque in the form of an Audi or Merc this time around, I'm looking to get one of the 3 usual suspects (f31 340i; B9 S4 Avant or C43 Estate), until BMW sort out their interior and value-for-money options. I've just sold my F11 530D touring 2010, so getting another F series might be pointless as the 340i will be too familiar to me.

So if I go over to Audi or Merc, what are the best or equivalent diagnostic options and how do they compare to ISTA? I've seen names like Xentry, DAS, STAR, C3 and C4, iCarsoft v2.0, etc. for MB, and VCDS for Audi, but that looks like a paid-for application at quite a high price and licensed to VIN. I love ISTA for reading out the car details, diagnosing and triggering every component, and the general workflow in helping troubleshooting problems, I also like the way that it kind of has TIS integrated with it as a handy reference and the overall interface is fast and slick. Using a laptop is sometimes a ball-ache, with the size of ISTA on disk and having to ensure the laptop is charged etc, so I'm all for handheld models, but ultimately if the application is comprehensive I don't mind using a laptop.

I do minimal coding these days, but would be good to know what options Audi/MB have in case I wanted to retrofit something in at some point. All recommendations welcome.

thanks all

seanjordan20

You said a whole lot. I don't think you would get the answer to that question unless you've had someone who owned all comparison models and have worked on them. I have driven comparison models but haven't worked on them. I've worked on a lot of different models but haven't driven comparison models.